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DJRTP to take over as Mustang Supercar Homologator.

Fords two primary Supercars teams have explained the switch in homologator from Tickford to Penske for the development of the new-for-2019 Mustang.
Thanks to its background as Ford's former factory Supercars outfit, Tickford has long been the brand's homologator for new cars, including the current FG-X Falcon model.

However as first reported by Motorsport.com, that's set to change for Ford's factory return to Supercars.

Thanks to its strong ties to the US, DJR Team Penske will take over official homologator status for the 2019 Mustang, which is being developed as part of a programme run by both DJRTP and Tickford, and Ford Performance in both Australian and the United States.

Tickford part-owner Rod Nash says his team is fully on-board with the Penske operation taking over the homologator status, and stressed that there's no animosity or hard feelings regarding the switch.

"This is a good example of a great relationship," he said.

"This particular homologation process is going to be quite different than before. You've got pretty well four stakeholders in this one. So that just makes it all a greater structure to deliver the right result at the end of the day.

"Our two teams are well known to be related with one another by supply of parts and different things over time. This whole round of negotiations on putting this project together was all about that. There was never any debate Ė 'oh, who wants to be the homologator'.

"I'd like to think that these four stakeholders, as in the two teams, Ford Australia, and Ford Performance, they are the collective homologators at the end of the day. We just elected that [DJR Team Penske] would be the homologator who would directly deal with the paper trail and the formalities with Supercars.

"But at the end of the day, I think we're all in agreeance that this is going to be the collective that will homologate the car. Which is something fresh and something new, and I feel something strong that [Supercars CEO] Sean [Seamer] can on-sell, as he's talking to other manufacturers.

"It's quite a powerful way of going about things."

DJR Team Penske boss Ryan Story agreed that the homologator status wouldn't have any real-word effects on the working relationship between the teams and the manufacturer.

"It's more of an administration thing than anything else," he said.

"The teams will work closely together to continue to ensure that our vested interests are met. We both want to produce the most competitive car we can, in conjunction with the alliance we have now with Ford and Ford Performance.

"That's entirely what our aim is."

The Mustang will headline Ford's return as a Supercars manufacturer, the brand having not had any significant technical or financial involvement in the sport over the last few seasons.

The car will be the first two-door Supercar, built to the category's Gen2 regulations.

Don't love that the grille is pushed out to the very edge of the opening, understand why it has been done for drag, but had pictured something like the moffstang that looked ready to chew up and spit out anything that got between it and victory